In 1872 Henry James described the painting as "dashed upon the canvas by a brush superbly confident." Hals's authorship has been discounted since the 1880s but the picture must be by a close follower, and is based upon Hals's Malle Babbe of the early 1630s (Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin) or a lost version of that composition. The title comes from an old inscription on the back of the Berlin painting and may be the nickname of a Haarlem personality. In the seventeeth century, owls were often associated with fools or vulgar behavior. A Dutch proverb, "drunk as an owl," is recalled by the woman's large tankard in the canvas in Berlin.

Catalogue Entry

Although this picture was one of the proudest trophies in the Museum's founding purchase of 1871, it was doubted as a work by Hals as early as 1883, when Bode described it as a free repetition by Frans Hals the Younger (1618–1669) after the Malle Babbe of about 1633–35 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) by his father. Slive has repeatedly dismissed Frans Hals the Younger from consideration, and believes it possible that the MMA canvas is "a copy of a lost original". Liedtke has compared the painting to works ascribed to Hals's sons Harmen (1611–1669) and Jan (ca. 1620–1654), and to other artists in Hals's circle, and like Slive is unable to offer a plausible attribution. The picture is superficially impressive for its bold execution, but it lacks Hals's sense of form and interest in actual observation. The work would appear to date from not long after Hals introduced the subject into the art world of Haarlem, that is, from the second half of the 1630s or the 1640s.

The subject of Hals's autograph work and this related canvas was a Haarlem woman confined in the local workhouse (which was both a house of correction and a charitable institution). The owl was a common symbol of folly in the Netherlands.

[2011; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Inscription: Inscribed (right center): FH [monogram]

Provenance

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Broadlands, Romsey, Hampshire (in about 1805); [Léon Gauchez, Brussels, until 1870]; [Léon Gauchez, Paris, and Alexis Febvre, Paris, 1870; sold to Blodgett]; William T. Blodgett, Paris and New York (1870–71; sold half share to Johnston); William T. Blodgett, New York, and John Taylor Johnston, New York (1871; sold to MMA)

Bryson Burroughs. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings. 9th ed. New York, 1931, p. 152, attributes it to Frans Hals the Younger, stating that "most authorities, including Bode and De Groot, consider the Museum's picture the work of someone close to Hals, probably Frans Hals the Younger".

Seymour Slive. Frans Hals. Exh. cat., Frans Halsmuseum. [Haarlem], [1962], p. 49, no. 31, fig. 5 (color), calls it closest of all the pictures of this subject to the painting in Berlin, but adds that "whether it is by the master himself or a brilliant follower is debatable"; rejects the attribution to Frans Hals the Younger and also the idea that the picture is a pendant to the painting in Kassel [see Ref. Valentiner 1923].

Seymour Slive. Frans Hals. Vol. 3, Catalogue. London, 1974, pp. 140–41, no. D34, fig. 155, states that the Coclers etching represents either the MMA painting or another version of it; suggests that it may be by the same anonymous artist responsible for paintings of fishergirls in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, and the Cincinnati Art Museum; notes that there was a poor copy of the MMA picture in a private collection in Rumson, New Jersey, in about 1960.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. ix, 299–302, no. 69, colorpl. 69, dates it to the second half of the 1630s or the 1640s, "not long after Hals introduced the subject into the art world of Haarlem".